The Microsoft Services Agreement
mentions that users are required to log in to their Microsoft accounts
"periodically, at a minimum of every 270 days, to keep the Microsoft
branded services portion of the services active." Otherwise "we may
cancel your access" and "your data may be permanently deleted from our
servers."

Microsoft does not mention the possibility that email account names will
be recycled. The company confirms that this is the policy, however.
When the account becomes inactive "the email account is automatically
queued for deletion from our servers. Then, after a total of 360 days,
the email account name is made available again," according to an email
statement from Microsoft.

Privacy issues, misdirected email

Despite the preventive measures, several Web mail users report getting
highly sensitive emails addressed to previous account holders. Recently,
Information Week
documented several cases of new Yahoo users getting emails addressed to
the old user of the account, including emails from Web services,
friends, and family.
Webwereld has seen mail correspondence from a confused and frustrated
Hotmail user, who has received several private emails addressed to a
namesake, which turned out to be the former holder of the account. This
former account holder, not being made aware by Microsoft of the
possibility and related risks of account recycling, is considering
filing a complaint about Microsoft with the Dutch data protection agency
CBP.
Mike Rispoli of the London-based, nonprofit organization Privacy International said that such a complaint could be a good thing, since it would raise awareness of the issue with data protection agencies.
"When Yahoo announced this, experts warned about and predicted serious
security and privacy issues. Yahoo downplayed these risks, and ignored
these critics, but now we see these concerns were legitimate," Rispoli
said.

The least Microsoft should do is clearly inform its users about the
account reuse policy, Rispoli said. "Microsoft should absolutely mention
this policy in their service agreement. Users should be made aware of
this."

Privacy International is generally critical of the recycling policies,
in terms of how they are implemented and how they are communicated.
"These companies do this purely from a business perspective, to increase
their bottom line and attract new users, but with disregard for any
privacy implications and user rights," Rispoli said. "This is a serious
trust issue, and the trust is broken."

Google, meanwhile, has confirmed to Webwereld that it does not recycle
unused accounts. Users can delete their accounts, but this "won't free
up your username. Once you delete your Gmail address, you won't be able
to use that same username (username@gmail.com) in the future," Google
says on its site.

On its part, Microsoft says: "We listen closely to the feedback we
receive from customers, and are always evaluating how to ensure
Outlook.com is the best email service available."